December 30, 2010

Paul Russell on Fate

What is up to us? Are we just the product of the things that happen to us, or do we have some control over what we do? Paul Russell grapples with questions about the role of fate and luck in our lives for this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast.

Comments

At 4:40, Nigel seems to think there is a contradiction, he seems to think that if the reason someone does something is due to his past experience, then he cannot be said to be making the decision himself. I can't help but wonder who he thinks *he* is if not the sum total of his past (nature and nurture.)

In other words, the apparent contradiction only comes about because of an assumption of being something more ("higher") than what can be empirically explained. The contradiction goes away when one takes a naturalistic view of reality.

I have always had this notion that I completely made up, or it was in the atmosphere and I picked it up, but I have this notion that we have like 25% control over our fate. Yet with that 25% we can change 100% of our fate by simply taking control of this small portion that is ours. We own our fate and can change it, we can't change how we were nurtured but we may be able to change our very nature. I don't know if this made any sense.